


Cue Panic

by DaniJayNel



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: AUish, F/F, Oneshot, parent!Victoria, pregnant!Max, prompt from tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-05-06
Packaged: 2018-06-06 17:08:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6762670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaniJayNel/pseuds/DaniJayNel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Victoria experiences a bout of self doubt and anxiety when she receives a call that Max is in labour with their baby. Victoria rushes Max to the hospital, and then Victoria panics.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cue Panic

Tegan and Sara’s “Boyfriend” blasted through Victoria’s car as her lips moved casually along with the lyrics. She was taking a slow drive uptown, on her way home from work. In the seat beside her sat Thai food, the type that Max loved most, and had apparently been craving all day. Thinking of that made Victoria smile, as thinking of Max always did. She was just about to start singing along when her phone rang. Furrowing her brows, Victoria turned the volume down, parked by a bus stop and checked the caller ID.

It was Max.

“Hey Maxine, I was just—”

“I am going to murder you,” Max growled, furious.

Victoria physically recoiled from the phone. _What the fuck,_ she thought. “Max, what the actual fuck.”

“Victoria I fucking hate you so much right now.” Max sounded breathy, and then she moved away from the phone and groaned loudly. When she returned, she was panting. “Get your ass home right now.”

“Max, you don’t fucking get to—”

“Tori, my fucking water _broke_. Come home NOW.”

Victoria felt her world still for a very long second. She stared lamely out at the road, and then realization hit and she swore. “Jesus, fuck. Okay, babe just calm down and pack your things. I’m on my way.”

Max groaned. “Please hurry.” And then she ended the call.

Victoria didn’t have time to scoff at the audacity. Her wife was in labour, and she needed to get her ass into gear. Victoria sped off down the road, swearing to herself and being an overall anxious mess.

“Max is in labour,” she said to herself softly. “Oh god, she’s in labour.”

Cue panic mode.

XxX

The cord at Victoria’s throat thrummed with every pulsing heartbeat. She was at the ground floor of the hospital, staring blankly at the vending machine. She couldn’t remember what she was there to get, until she was jolted back to reality by an arm swinging over her shoulder.

“Hey baby daddy, whatcha doing here and not with Max?” It was Chloe.

“Ugh, get your filthy self off of me,” Victoria growled. Her eyes never left the machine, so she simply jabbed at a random button and waited for the snack to drop.

“Dude, is everything okay? Are Max and the baby…?”

Straightening, Victoria nodded slowly. “They’re fine.”

Chloe narrowed her eyes. “Then why the shit are you standing here like you’ve lost a loved one?”

Victoria swallowed hard. It was true. She should have been with Max, holding her hand. She had been in labour for a few hours already, but Victoria needed a break. In truth, she was panicking pretty badly.

“I just…” she clutched at the chocolate bar in her hands. “I’m not sure.”

Chloe rolled her eyes, then pulled Victoria over to the nearby waiting area. Chloe dropped down onto the seat with the grace of a llama, but Victoria didn’t have the energy to snark about it. She could do so later, when she didn’t feel like such a pile of shit.

“Okay, lay it on me,” Chloe drawled. “What’s eating at your pretty ass?”

Victoria rolled her eyes. Ever since she and Max had started dating, Chloe had been an ever present pest. But over the years they had become more civil, almost friends. So it wasn’t all too difficult for Victoria to open the floodgates, unable not to.

“Max is having my baby and I feel like the worst parent in the world already. It doesn’t even make fucking sense because look at me,” she gestured to her body, “I am fucking fabulous.”

Chloe grinned. “If you say so.”

“I just… when Max called and said she’s having the baby, I panicked. I’ve been panicking since. Remember how I used to treat Max like shit? I’m terrified that I’ll ruin my kid somehow, and they’ll end up like me.”

Chloe hummed, threading her fingers together. While her fashion sense had improved _some_ , she was still mostly the Chloe from high school. From the redness of her eyes, Victoria wondered if she hadn’t indulged in a blunt before coming over. Maybe Chloe needed to calm down, too.

“While I agree that raising your kid to be like you would be fatal,” Chloe said, adding a grin to remove any sting, “I think you’re freaking out for nothing, Vic.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Tori.”

“No.”

“VICTORY.” Chloe cracked up suddenly, slapping her knee. “Dude, Max loves the fuck out of you. For years we’ve never been able to figure out why. Why the hell are you sitting here with me, when Max needs you?”

Victoria inhaled. Slowly the tightness of anxiety slipped away from her muscles. Her stomach loosened, too, and her chest felt less restricted. She hated being told what to do, but part of it let her feel like she had no choice. That if years down the line she really did fuck up, she could backtrack into the past and point a well-manicured finger at Chloe.

“Fuck, okay.” Victoria tossed the chocolate at Chloe, heading to the elevator. “Thanks, Chloe,” she called over her shoulder.

Chloe’s surprised laughter echoed at her back.

XxX

Max wasn’t screaming or yelling. As Victoria neared her room, all she could hear were tiny whimpers of pain. When she stepped inside, Max’s eyes snapped to her immediately. The contortion of agony drained from her face for a minute, replaced by joy and warmth, before another contraction hit and Max clenched her teeth hard. Victoria rushed to her side.

“Hey Max,” she said gently. “How are you doing?”

“Like I’m pushing an entire clone of myself out,” Max gritted through her teeth. “How do you think?”

Victoria sighed and took one of Max’s hands. Almost immediately Max gripped her tightly, almost desperately.

“Where did you go?” Max asked quietly. There were unshed tears in her eyes, but Victoria wasn’t sure what they were for. The pain? The worry?

“I went to get a snack. I also bumped into that dumb friend of yours.”

Another wave of pain interrupted Max’s response. She grunted, gripping too tightly at Victoria’s hand. When it passed, Max scooted closer until she could curl up by Victoria’s side. They remained silent for a moment, and then Max exhaled.

“I thought you bailed on me.”

Victoria’s chest tightened. “Never,” she promised sharply. “I’d never leave you, you dork.”

“Really?”

Victoria couldn’t take the naked pain and worry on Max’s face. She leaned in to kiss it away, grateful that Max responded in kind. They kissed for a long while, slowly and gently, as if for the first time. When they pulled apart, Victoria rested her forehead against Max’s.

“I just freaked,” she explained. “But your blue haired wonder helped me out.”

“Don’t be a dick,” Max laughed. “She loves her blue hair.”

“She’s almost thirty, Max. How can any respectable adult walk around with hair like _that?_ ”

Max laughed. “Only Chloe. It looks hot on her, though.”

Victoria lifted a perfect brow. “I didn’t know you were into that.”

“When this is over,” Max began, pulling away to run a hand through Victoria’s hair, “you’ll dye it blue for me, okay?”

“Why in the world would I do that?”

“Because it was your idea to procreate and now I am giving birth to a giant.”

“Max, that’s exaggerating.”

Max grunted in pain again, but she laughed softly when it ebbed away. “Next time you’ll have the baby.”

“Next time?” Forgetting the playful banter from earlier, Victoria crawled onto the bed so that she could hold Max against her. Max was pleased, since she snuggled up almost immediately and then released a contented sigh. “You’d have another baby with me?”

“I’d have many babies with you if it wasn’t so goddamn painful."

Victoria smiled despite herself. She pressed a kiss against Max’s sweaty brow, and then fully embraced her as they waited the contractions out. “Thank you.”

“For?”

“For being you.”

Max snorted. “Lame.”

“Hey, that’s fucking rude.”

“Listen, don’t swear in front of our baby.”

Victoria’s lips pressed together quickly, keeping her choice words to herself. But when Max began to laugh, she scowled.

“I love you, Icky Vicky,” Max managed between her laughter and groans of pain.

Victoria smiled. She couldn’t help it. “I love you too, dork. More than I can ever express.”

“You’ll be a great parent, I know it.”

“I hope so, Max.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading ^^ if you'd like to request any Chasefield from me, please drop a request/prompt in my ask box on tumblr at 'danilovesanimenel'


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